The New York Times, Washington Post and USAToday have unveiled the
future of journalism. Each has launched new virtual reality initiatives,
according to Erik Sass in Publishers Daily. Their purviews are not so
important as their paper's investment in the medium. Its use is going to
grow.

Laura Sullivan, reporting for Media Post from the South by Southwest Interactive
Gathering in Austin, TX. writes "...brands are embracing the virtual
in reality. In fact, the media will hit $4 billion by the end of 2016.
Soon, software will surpass hardware to support the media, per Stephanie
Llamas, director of research and insights, Superdata Research."
Lisa
Davis, writing on VR Journalism:
How Tech and Storytelling Are
Converging for the Future of Play Issue of HPE Matter, says,
"Virtual worlds have
long been the territory of computer games and entertainment videos. Now,
360-degree video and a new generation of affordable headsets like Gear VR and
Cardboard are allowing documentary journalists and news
organizations to adapt gaming technology to help report their stories."
She quotes VR journalism innovator Nonny de la Peña. "Why wouldn't the
audience want to use this (VR) as a way to get their news? It's a
no-brainer to me. The younger audience in particular is very comfortable
with their digital phone. This is not a place that will be problematic
for them to get their news stories from."

Davis notes, "It's never been
easier to manipulate the story or add propaganda into a virtual world."
Which leads to the real possibility of publishers becoming producers,
editors becoming directors, and reporters becoming cameramen. Which, in
turn would enable politicians to become reality stars and reality stars
to become political stars in a "real" world described by a VR that is
programmed by algorithms directing increasingly sophisticated Artificial
Intelligence (AI) machines. And it is now possible to manipulate a
person's lips and facial expressions on camera to make it appear he or
she is actually saying what the editor wants viewers to hear.

AI already mines data and writes stories for The
Associated Press and Los Angeles Times but as Atlantic Re: Think, the
venerable magazine's creative group, reports, no where near to the
extent that "...companies like Banjo are trying to do. They take
huge feeds of Big Data from countless digital sources—everything from
the 500 million tweets uploaded daily to video feeds from Brazil to
traffic reports in Albuquerque—and sort through it all live, as it
happens online, providing an instant source of breaking news as well as
tips, insights and people on the ground long before a reporter could
reach the scene."

Obviously, what is selected can be
controlled, and the reverse process put in motion: news "granulized" to
what you want to see can be directed to you and that which you do not
want or that which the AI machine censors, would not be sent to you.
. . . This likelihood brings us to the conundrum cited by Kaila Colbin
in her Online Spin column:
Waze, Google, Facebook: The Observer Effect
And Our Interconnected, Co-Created Reality. She concludes her thoughts:
"Waze, Google, Facebook, and every other for-profit digital entity that
derives its success from our collective participation are incentivized
not only to learn from, but also to influence, our behavior.
We have yet to seriously ask ourselves whether this is what we really
want. But we should."

"New Day, a new British tabloid from the publisher of the
Daily
Mirror, debuted with 2 million free copies of its print edition
– but no Web site, and no plans for one," Erik Sass writes in
Publishers Daily. He says, "The idea is to force, or perhaps
coax, readers back to print, restoring some of the old
exclusivity conferred by the publisher's control of production
and distribution. That, in turn, allowed them to charge a pretty
penny (pence?) for print advertising."

The
Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Publishing, appears to be going in several directions at
once: selling, buying and content sharing. The company's print
operations are rumored for sale. It is trying to purchase the
Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise and
Crain's Chicago Business says the Trib has entered a content
sharing deal with the rival Chicago Sun-Times and the McClatchy
Company. Crain explains the content sharing, despite a new major
investors pledge not too merge the two Windy City dailies even
though his company publishes the Sun-Times, as a result of the
investor's ownership of a
media technology company he owns serving both papers. At last
word, the Department of Justice had denied the Trib's bid to buy
the California papers because it already owns the Los Angeles
Times and San Diego Union-Tribune and adding the two Freedom
Communications papers would hamper competition.

Uber is
coming or remains under fire for its safety. re/code notes poor
handling of customer complaints, primarily no phone number to
call – even when a passenger is facing or feels lucky to have
escaped possible harm. One upset Uber-user did find a web site
to report a complaint. The response was a "sorry" note and a
chit for a $5.00 refund. Buzzfeed's review of unauthorized
screenshots of Uber records, apparently "leaked" by an employee,
revealed a discrepancy of "thousands" in the number of its trip
reports or "customer support tickets" referencing "sexual
assault" or "rape" as compared with the 170 and five claims,
respectively, acknowledged by Uber for the period 2012-2015. The
screenshots and Uber's rebuttal can be see here:
Internal Data Offers Glimpse At Uber Sex Assault Complaints.
For the most part, the company explains the gap as
classification, procedural and language problems. Uber also did away with its email
"Customer Support Tickets," according to The Verge. Now, it reports most of Uber's customer service operations are handled in India and the Phillipines
through its app. Meanwhile,
Crain's Utah reports a Federal judge is likely to allow two
rape suits against the company to move forward. In other Uber
news, "the company has agreed to pay $28.5 million to riders to
settle two class-action suits challenging its safety claims and,
as part of the agreement, will be changing the language it uses
in its marketing so that it is "clear and precise," Tom Forbes
reports for MediaPost. . . . . . . In the race with Silicon Valley to
build the self-driving car, Daniel Howes points out in The
Detroit News, Detroit has a key asset – the car. At least
for the present.

TEN, the multi-platform enthusiast networks intends to overcome
the image of lowrider vehicles and their drivers propagated by some magazines and "B"
movies. Its Lowrider brand has launched the Lowrider
Roll Models program, a series of short video segments featuring lowrider
community leaders, sponsored by Shell Lubricants and featuring
Quaker State Motor Oils. The brand's manager, Rudy Rivas, was
quoted in the announcement: "The culture of lowriding
continues to be judged on the basis of false or dated
information, so the lowrider community, through programs such as
Lowrider Roll Models, is going to change that perception."

Roman Mica announced that TFL has increased its ability to
produce meaningful, in-depth reviews of high performance cars by
adding Paul Gerrard an accomplished race car driver, instructor,
and presenter who has been a driver for the U.S. and UK versions
of Top Gear. He will be the site's go-to driver for car
reviews requiring a professional at the wheel. Catch one of this
first for the outlet
here.

Joe Pompeo reported recently in Politico Media "Blendle,
the Dutch journalism start-up developing an iTunes-style payment
method for newspapers, magazines and websites, made its debut in
the U.S. with a coterie of high-profile publishers in tow: The
New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist,
The
Financial Times and more. He says the pay-per-story app offers
refunds when users dislike articles they've purchased for as
little as 9 cents a pop.

Wikipedia Foundation's commercial spinoff Wikia is getting into
the news reporting business, Joe Mandese wrote for MediaPost
from the SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX. He quoted Wikipedia
founder Jimmy Wales, "Instead of just being an encyclopedia,
we're becoming a news source." Mandese said Wales also described
a new app for Wikipedia designed to "optimize snackable moments
of users' time." The example Wales offered: "Clearly, the app
could know that he read three articles about shipwrecks. Let's
serve him up more content about shipwrecks." . . . Google's
launching of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) for mobile searches
is seen by some as, "a central part of Google's maniacal mission
to clean up the mobile Web and boost search revenue on mobile,"
according to George Simpson writing for MEDIA Daily News.
AMP
does load news stories faster and at the the top of searches, he
notes.

Tanya Gazdik, apparently succeeding Karl Greenberg
as MediaPost's automotive writer, quotes
Isabelle Helms, vice president of research and market
intelligence for Cox Automotive speaking to the Automotive Press
Association in Detroit, "What worked for Millennials will not
work for Gen Z because this generation is fundamentally
different, They are more practical in their choice of vehicle
and more budget conscious (a result of having seen their parents
go through a major recession)." She says they are: "less
materialistic than their predecessors and drawn to more
traditional brands that are trusted and practical." The top
three are Chevrolet, Ford and Honda. However, she noted "None of
the automakers are currently connecting with this demographic on
an emotional level."

Roger
Lanctot posted on Pulse, GM in the Middle of Mobility Muddle. He
observes that GM is protecting its stake in the future of
personal transportation with a considerable investment in Lyft,
(ride-hailing), acquisition of Cruise Automation (aftermarket
self-driving car system) and the launch of Maven (car sharing.).
It is backing those bets by making subsidized short-term rentals
of Chevy Equinoxes available to Lyft drivers who use them in 65
rides a week. Lanctot notes that the company is yet to get its
dealers on board with its Lyft and Maven programs. A great many
GM dealers use Uber to accommodate their customers, he
avers.

Also, Chuck Martin notes in IOT Daily, "The majority of American
youths, most of whom are still too young to drive, would rather
do the driving themselves, when the time comes. And the closer
they get to driving age, the more they want to control the
vehicle themselves, based on a new study." His report is derived
from a Harris Poll of youths 8 to 18 conducted for Nielsen. He
adds, "Youngsters are not alone in their view of autonomous
driving. A recent study by Kelley Blue Book found that most
adults don't expect to ever own a driverless car." .
. .Yet, analysts predict there will be a $75,000 Apple car
(pictured below) on the
roads by 2021. Jalopnik says it is pure speculation based on one
analyst's reading of rumors and insider trading.

In the meantime:
"Coming soon — Tesla safety in the humble jalopy?" Louis Hansen asks in the
San Jose Mercury News. He describes a "smartphone device hanging from a car's rear view mirror that
checks the driver's distraction and the road ahead as well as
several other safety checks. when a car enters a road. He
reports, " several companies — from startups such as Nauto to
major auto suppliers — are working on similar safety features
that could reach the broader car market in just a few years.
Nauto's beta device is already in use by some fleet operations.
Automotive supplier Delphi's safety business has grown 50
percent in the past year, alone. The market is huge, Hansen
notes, considering the average vehicle on U.S. roads is 11 years
old and is not equipped with today's new safety devices.

The wave of change engulfing the auto industry has created its
own undertow of nostalgia. Jay Leno's plaint in AutoWeek about
the bygone auto parts counterman;
Wally Wyss'lament reported here about the death
of performance; Auto Extremist Peter De Lorenzo's rant
on "The End of Cardolatry." Or the many Social Media Posts on
bygone auto races, race drivers, designers, Peter Brock's
for Motor Authority on the
creation and creators
of the Shelby Daytona coupe or Andrew Smith's posting: just
the sound of a 911 moving through its gears.

Steve Ford, prompted by the recent passing of Dick Gulstrand,
joins the gaze on the good old days with a tribute to the
heroes and their times that infused his life with a with a love
for cars.
Click here
to read the full tribute (and more pictures) and perhaps be reminded of your own autoworld
"heroes," inspirations and aspirations.

Automotive News reports the shadows from ISIS outrages and mass
shootings in our schools, churches and theaters have darkened consumer
moods and that means the four shades of the new Knight Watch's color
theme to be offered in 2019 by PPG Automotive OEM Coatings the world's largest supplier of auto
body paint, will be "mostly dark, solid and subdued." The
article quoted Jane
Harrington, manager of color styling for world's
largest supplier of auto body paint, PPG Automotive "We talked about security protection
being this overwhelming global theme. That's how this theme came about."
If that is the mood and people want the darker colors, they'll get them.
On that point the publication quoted Susan Lampinen, Ford Motor Co.
group chief designer for color and materials:
"We've done market research that shows that if people cannot get the
color they want, they will not buy the vehicle and they'll change brands
and change companies."

Among the exotica, power and luxury displayed at the Geneva Auto Show,
the Apollo Arrow hypercar stood out as one
most likely to prompt the distraction of other
drivers as it speed pass them at 200+ miles per hour.

Of the seven green cars Larry Hallpredicts we'll be driving in 2025
in his piece for
About.com/autos, only a Ford and a Mercedes gull
wing look familiar. The others resemble squeezed or squiggled gunmdrops,
a large floating translucent tire and an opaque wedge. . . . Automotive News and
Deloitte, Inforum and Ally have collaborated to launch the
The Leading Women Network, a community of men and women working together
toward a shared objective: to empower, mentor and educate women in
automotive. To learn more go
here.

Ford Motor Company may have found it unseemly or unethical to pat
themselves on the back for being the only car company among 131 firms
worldwide named A World's Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere
Institute. Tanya Gazdik of MediaPost reports "the program honors
companies that excel in three areas -- promotingethical business
standards and practices internally, enabling managers and employees to
make good choices, and shaping future industry standards by introducing
tomorrow's best practices today."

Tom Burkart posted in late February:
"hey guys! CarRevs Daily is looking for special contributors,
writers and reviewers. There is a big catch, though: it is unpaid.
Even so, for those seeking new outlets.... this may be a great
opportunity. More info
here. . . . The start of the Formula 1 season was enough for
David Bull
to call attention to three fine books: Formula One at Watkins Glen,
20 years of the United States Grand Prix by Michael Argetsinger for
$49.95. Postcards from Detroit, Remembering Formula One In The Motor
City by Roger Hart, $24.95. A Life and Times With McLaren by
Tyler
Alexander, $55.00 For more information or to order: visit
www.bullpublishing.com or order by telephone at 602-852-9500.

Early in March the
61-year-old Autbooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, CA hosted the James Dean researcher and
expert Lee Raskin and friends for a discussion of the
now legendary actor's fateful drive to Salinas, Calif. as recounted
by Raskin in his book: James Dean On The Road to Salinas. For
more info click:
www.autobooks-aerobooks.com
. . . .Peter Aylett's Car Art, Inc. is featuring Great British Cars
and Artists during April. Samples can be seen at
www.carart.us.

Brett Berk's review of a
Mercedes-Benz 2017 E300 for
The
Drive broke an assumed unwritten rule of car criticism,
"Never go all in." Usually, a car critic offers suggested
improvements or notes inadequacies to establish his or her "creds" as an independent agent not beholden to the source
for the guest test. But, there was barely a quibble, quiver,
or quaver in his report that deemed the E300 "the most
advanced, functional, and user-friendly suite of autonomous
driving technologies in the world." His final
encomium "best ever driven" may have left room for an
electric car he has yet to test. . . . This PininFerrari HE Speed Concept Car unveiled at the
Geneva International Motor Show may create a new standard. According to the
Robb Report this hydrogen-powered
zero-emissions car has a top speed of 184 mph and can be
refueled in 3 minutes.

Sardonic blogger Autoplobnik
captured the essence of a recent Toyota announcement with
this headline and pseudo quote: Toyota kills Scion brand,
citing its success. "The Scion brand has done exactly what
we intended it to do, which is why we are getting rid of
it." . . . More auto nostalgia will hit the big screen with a
new chapter of The Cannonball Run contracted for by
Warner
Brothers according to AutoWeek which ran the story without
credit to the auto journalist who created the event that
gave rise to the film franchise, Brock Yates. . .
A new law gives Canadian photographers legal ownership of
their work, commissioned or not. There was a time when the
party commissioning the photos owned the rights and
negatives.

Thanks to the national alert raised by SEMA and other
concerned groups the EPA has backed off its purposed
regulation that would prevent street cars from doing duty as
racecars. That could have been a serious blow to the LeMons
Series of races for rejuvenated clunkers as well as to
countless thousands of "hot rodders" and aftermarket and
specialty shops. The agency quickly backtracked and said it
has no intent of banning those modifications. However, SEMA
is among others who do not wish to rely on "intent" and are
urging Congress to pass RPM Act 2016 that specifically
permits the activity. . . .
Mazda Raceway: Laguna Seca: Will it survive? asks Bruce
Hotchkiss in his "Spare Parts" blog. It seems the
Monterey
County Board of Supervisors is looking for an entity to
supplant the 60-year old Sports Car Racing Association of
Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP). Hotchkiss is concerned this
could be bad and urges fans to write the Supervisors to stick
with SCRAMP. Their emails are listed in the article. ... "Vintage Racing, once thought to
be not much more than a small group of gentlemen racers
racing very expensive cars in club events, is moving in the
direction of mainstream motorsport," according to Bob
Koveleski who sent evidence of the trend with the
announcement that Zenith Watch has teamed up with
SVR to make an official timepiece for its 2016 series of
16 races nationally. In addition, Zenith will make a special
edition Zenith El Primero Chronomaster 1969 SVRA Watch
available to SVRA's 5,000 drivers and its general
membership. Koveleski says Zenith is the second luxury brand signed to sponsor the
38-year-old organization the other not named.

Barry Janoff reports in
NY SportsJournalism.com
"global spending
on motorsports' sanctioning bodies, teams and tracks is
expected to total a record $5.58 billion in 2016, a 2.8%
increase from 2015 and a rise of more than $2 billion since
2011, according to research, sponsorship and consulting firm
IEG, Chicago." The piece also lists sponsors of major
NASCAR
teams but does not include the $200 million
GM is spending
to consolidate its engineering in its
Global Powertrain Engineering Center – including its
Powertrain Performance Racing Center so it will, "enabling faster technology
transfer between GM's racing and production-vehicle powertrains," according to
The Detroit News writer, Henry Payne. . . .GM
also deserve kudos for capitalizing on the Telsa 3 unveiling by making sure auto journalists knew its
Chevrolet Bolt EV rivals the Tesla 3 in features, performance and mileage at a lower price point and will be available at least one year ahead of
Elon Musk’s first volume offering. On the other hand Tesla has deposits of $325,000,000 and growing for $14 billion in
orders before the first production model is built. Plus an offer of an
abandoned nuclear plant in France to help meet production demands

Gale Banks' Insider Newsannounced the company winning
a massive engine contract but does not say how much, from
whom or precisely what but it is "the biggest military
engine contract in 30 years." Biggest awarded by the
military? Biggest received by Banks or by
Oskosh Defense,
which apparently subcontracted engine work to Banks?

If Pebble Beach salutes the esthetic of the automobile,
Amelia
Island's annual March gathering celebrates the ethos of
America's
car culture. Impresario Bill Warner burnish our awareness of the people, places, events and machines that enrich our automotive heritage.
. . . . It all depends. The Detroit News headlines
GMC
and Toyota on top in Mike Wayland's report on the
J.D. Power
2016 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study of 2013 model-year
vehicles. Karl Greenberg's report of the same study for
MediaPost is head lined:
"Lexus, Porsche, Buick Are Big
Reliability Winners." Both reports agree that telematics -
audio, communication, entertainment and navigation –are the
chief problems owners are having with their vehicles . . . . .
Millerschin GroupCEO Erin Millerschin was named one of
PR News'
‘Top Women in PR'. In 2000 she founded one of Detroit's first
woman-owned companies focused on serving Detroit's
transportation industry.
It has since grown and prospered.

Ed Welburn, soon-to-retire chief designer for General Motors is the first
recipient of The Detroit Free Press's Automotive Leadership
Lifetime Achievement Award. Some say he is "the greatest GM
designer ever." High praise considering that Harley J. Earl,
William Mitchell and Chuck Jordan
have preceded him. For a better understanding of his work, check
out the story and video
here.
. . . George Follmer, the only driver to have won both the
Trans-Am and Can-Am championships in one year (1972), will be
honored by the Road Racing Drivers Club at the "RRDC Evening
with George Follmer presented by Firestone" in Long Beach,
Calif., on Thursday, April 14, prior to the running of the
Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Credential applications are being accepted online for the 2016 Pinehurst Concours d'Elegance
through April 23. Register on
here. Approved
credentials for the weekend can be picked up in the Donald Ross Sunroom
within the Pinehurst Resort Country Club beginning Thursday, April 28 at
1 p.m. Contact is David Droschak, Pinehurst Concours Communications
Director at 919-630-6656 (cell) or email
ddroschak@earthlink.net.

TEXAS

The Texas Auto Roundup at Texas Motor
Speedway has been expanded to two days of driving, May 1-3.
There will
be no embargo on announcing the awards, which will be presented Tuesday
afternoon, May 3. . . . Because the nationally famous Texas Truck Rodeo
has a new venue this October, a May 4 pre-event reconnaissance trip, or
"recce" as the World Rally Championship calls it, will provide
Manufacturer and Associate Members and their respective support teams
the opportunity to explore the new venue and help make decisions on the
off-road and on-road drive routes, including special stage obstacles,
paddock and facilities placement and so forth. The new home is the
Longhorn River Ranch located in a picturesque Texas Hill Country setting
west of Austin, near Dripping Springs. It features spectacular elevation
changes and, with around 1,632 acres, is roughly 50% larger than the
event's previous venue with options for more varied and challenging
off-road courses than before. On-road drive routes will follow the
winding river roads along Onion Creek, and stints at highway speeds more
closely represent drive cycles Texans experience everyday.

CALIFORNIA

The Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show returns Sunday, April 24, 2016 to Half Moon Bay Airport. The 26th edition of the annual event features car shows, air shows, motorcycle shows, tractor shows, maker fairs, music festivals, food festivals, and living history festivals.
. . . The Mullin Automotive Museum at Oxnard, Calif. has unveiled its
Cars and Carriages exhibit as part of its continuing celebration of French culture. It features fine carriages and early motorcars that highlight transportation from the end of the horse-drawn era and the dawn of the automotive age.

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is welcoming the Back
to the Future DeLorean to its new home with a Back To The Future Weekend starting April 20.The 3-day event begins with an unveiling of the original car followed by a panel discussion with the writer and others tied to the film and car. A dance featuring an
'80s rock band is slated for April 23 and a Petersen Breakfast Club Cruise-In with
Delorean Club members will be held from 8 am to 10 am on the 24th.

The Motor Press Guild is reaching out to Motorcycle Writers. MPG
President Jason
Fogelson notes, "Southern California is a major hub for the motorcycle
industry, and for motorcycle journalism. Kawasaki,Suzuki,
Honda and
Yamaha have large offices here; Harley-Davidson, Triumph,
BMW, Ducati,
Moto Guzzi, Indian and Victory all have press fleets here, as do other
smaller manufacturers. Also, that Rider, Motorcyclist,
Cycle World, Motorcycle Consumer News, Motorcycle.com and
RideApart.com are all based here, as are many
motorcycle writers. Therefore, Fogelson reasons, an MPG Motorcycle event
of some sort should be established to recognize this segment of the
motoring world. . . . .DiMora Motorcars is making a name for itself
"where the ducks fly." That is, displaying its hand-built luxury motor
cars in venues where its million dollar plus vehicles will be seen by
folks who can afford them. Most recently at the second anniversary
celebration of the Rancho Santa Fe (Calif.) Motor Club and Storage. The latter providing classic car owner and
aficionado members event space, concierge services and 24/7 mobile app
viewing access to their
vehicles. . . . . . MPG members toured Callaway Motors in Santa Ana and
got an exclusive look at the 2016 Callaway Camaro SC610. And they
toured Hot Rod Hall of Famer Chip Foose's Huntington Beach design
shop March 31st.

"Landspeed Louise" Noeth has left one lane, about reached the summit of
second and moved ahead on a third. Typically a "100 Percenter" – all in
for every task she gets involved in – she's 100 percent all out of the
International Automotive Media Competition. She was named Chief Judge
and Tom Kelley Chief Administrator two years ago when her good friend,
event co-founder Elaine Haessner, decided to give up the day-to-day
running of the event, a solo task she took on after the death a few
years back of her husband and event co-founder Walter Haessner. Noeth
had been a section judge for years in the annual recognition of
outstanding work in automotive media but resigned with, "irreconcilable
creative differences. The IAMC is going in a direction I don't care to
take." Counter balancing that roadblock, the Save The Salt
Coalition of activist groups that she serves as media contact and
passionate advocate, has gained the unanimous support of the Utah
Legislature, regional officials of the Bureau of Land Management and the
companies that hold the leases for mining at the Bonneville Salt
Flats. No more mining of Bonneville's salt!
The next step is gaining a Federal resolution
to restore the historic land speed racing venue. That is feasible, Noeth
notes, because in addition to a mandate to monetize use of the land it
manages, in this case granting leases to mine salt, the BLM has a
mandate to restore those lands to their previous condition after the
mining is done. Her third "Lane Change" was moving on to the masthead
as a contributing writer for PRI Magazine, where she has freelanced
often.

Alisa Priddle has moved to Detroit Editor, Motor Trend from reporter at
The Detroit Free Press. She succeeds Scott Burgess who has moved on to
Yahoo! Autos. Priddle can be reached at: 248-566-2614 or
alisa.priddle@motortrend.com. Try Burgess at the Yahoo protocol:
sburgess@yahoo-in.com
or his last known number: 248-345-6626 . . . Karl Greenberg no longer is
MediaPost's automotive editor where he penned the Automotive Marketing
Newsletter and reported on cars for all of the publisher's many
newsletters. No word about his next assignment.

Broadcaster Steve Hammes reports he has a new TV
syndication deal for his Drive Time show now in its 18h year with some
2,000 car reviews under his belt. Full details yet to be announced . . .
. . Shirley Powell, chief communications officer for The Weather Company
has rolled to Cox Automotive as VP of communications and community
relations, O'Dwyer's Newsletter reports.

PR, Marketing and Media Relations Pros: Campbell-PR.com
can work with you to get the right info to the right people who
write about cars. Contact us for your next release:email Campbell-PR.com
phone 435.656.1040

Al Vinikour - Autowriters.com once wrote of him, "if you don't know Al Vinikour, its not his fault." A prototypical jovial salesman who never brought his personal troubles to a meeting, his quick wit, experience and humor made him a valuable PR communications consultant, freelance writer and friend. He began his career more than 40 years ago working for his father-in-law at the time as a traveling rep for
Derus Media Service. His passing prompted two auto pro online tributes to him: one by
James Bell in the Motor Press Guild's Mile Posts, the other by
Paul A. Eisenstein emailed by the
Automotive Press Association.

Jon Lowell - A truly respected veteran of the Detroit press where,
as Midwest reporter for Newsweek and later with Ward's, he became a
walking encyclopedia of the auto industry. A memorial will be held April
16
appropriately, at the storied motor city media watering hole, the Anchor
Bar. An excellent tribute to Lowell by Ken Zino can be read at:
Corvette Takes Sebring - Jon Lowell Is Laughing.

Eric White - Founding partner of the Automotive Preservation Society to
which he devoted countless hours towards the Society's goal: "preserve
the past for the future."

Joe Garagiola – His "Buy a Car Get A Check" ad campaign for
Chrysler in
the 70's launched a series of "Tent Sales" across the U.S. intended to
overcome the company's practice of building and "banking" unsold cars.
It did not stave off
Chrysler's need for a government bail out shortly thereafter.

Long-time radio automotive reporter, critic and commentator Bob
Long posted a moving and we are sure, very difficult, plea for
help in overcoming medical conditions that threaten his life and
livelihood. You can read it
here.

Motorsports Link Relay

Here's a very clean,
clear article about motorsports that just
ran in Forbes ... sometime "basic" is a very good thing. –Stokes
To: Doug Stokes
Subject: Rolex 24 story
Dear Doug:
Here's a
link to my Rolex 24 story on Forbes.com.
Kind of basic, but that's what they wanted.

Hi Glenn,
Did anyone tell you today, or this week, what a great job you do
with this? I echo that if others have praised you recently. But,
if not, I will raise my voice in praise now. YOU DO A GREAT JOB.
Hope that didn't hurt your ears.
Julie Candler, who was raised in my hometown Springfield IL, was
my pr mentor when I moved to Detroit in 1966 because my husband,
Ken Thomas born K. Thomas Kitchin, got a street reporter's job
at WXYZ-TV. Julie taught me so much. Last spring she hosted a
lunch for some mutual friends when I was in Michigan for a
gran's graduation from UMich. Amazing woman.
I mourn Vinikour too: he was one piece of work.
Hope you are well and thriving. I am happily, thoroughly
retired, far afield from daily thoughts about cars and why
people want to spend money to buy/drive them, but relish your
rebirth as a journalist after years of successful flacking.
Bestest,
your fan Rosemarie Kitchin who might not have taken the Chrysler
job if Moon wouldn't let me go to prison for Plymouth Trouble
Shooting*

* I think I remember you, the Dodge agency guy, being in the
office that Friday afternoon when we talked about me going to
prisons -- don't think it was Gil Benedict. Have you any
recollection? I'm not writing my memoirs, just testing memory,
Glenn
RmKrkitchin@aol.com
Rosemarie Kitchin
Chapel Hill, NC 27517

Nice Note Wrong Town

Hi Glenn,

Been reading the newsletter for years, unaware till now that yer
in
Santa Barbara.

I've been away from the automotive side for awhile, but did
regular print and radio new car reviews for about 15 years.
Recently returned to freelance life in motojournalism. (Wrote a
half dozen motorcycle books in the '90s.) Here's the
current post

Happy New Year! I saw that the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance
was featured in the December 2015 Autowriters newsletter and
thought you'd find this of interest:
The Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival and Concours d'Elegance,
held in the beautiful lowcountry of South Carolina on Hilton
Head Island, will occur October 28 – November 6, 2016. We'd love
to pass along the news to your readers, and have them
register
their classics in the event.
And in case you missed it, I've included the winners press
release from the 2015 event below my signature and attached a
photo of the winning vehicle, a 1933 Chrysler Custom Imperial
Phaeton.

Please note: all correspondence sent to autowriters.com may
be used for publication at the Editors' discretion unless you
state otherwise.

motoring press organizations

North American regional automotive press associations provide
information and background not easily found elsewhere. If they are
too distant for you to attend their meetings, belonging usually
gives you access to transcripts or reports of these events and other
benefits.

" . . .our relationship (with Red Bull) goes back quite a long
time. It is authentic and what you see coming out of it in the
first instance is the hyper-car. But hopefully other technologies will come out of it as well
and we can proudly put the stickers on the car and say it is
more than just a marketing scam."

"...content needn't necessarily explicitly advertise the good
or service; providing info or entertainment on matters of common
interest with the customer base and prospects is reason enough.
The key words there, though, are "common interest." If your
content gives them reason to hate you, I promise you, they
will."

Bob Garfield's Mediapost Column "And Somewhere Men Are Laughing,
And Somewhere Children Shout?"

Cell Phone Use

"Once out of bed, we check our phones 221 times a day — an
average of every 4.3 minutes — according to a U.K. study... one thing young people don't do on their smartphones is
actually speak to one another."

Jacob Weisberg, New York Review of Books, "We Are Hopelessly
Hooked"

Googling Is Believing: Trumping the Informed Citizen

"The worry is no longer about who controls content. It is about
who controls the flow of that content
" . . . searching the Internet can get you to information that
would back up almost any claim of fact, no matter how unfounded.
It is both the world's best fact-checker and the world's best
bias confirmer — often at the same time
". . . there is nothing to fear from information when counter
information is just as plentiful."

By Michael P. Lynch NY Times' The Stone, March 9, 2016

Autonomous Cars Coming Fast

"The amount of time it takes for technology to reach mass-market
adoption has plummeted. It took the airplane over 60 years to
reach 50 million people. It took the iPod just three years.

Kaila Colbin, OnLine Spin: Today Pizzabots, Tomorrow The Future

Should Advertising Be Punishable As Aggravated Assault?

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." And when some
vendor comes to you with a clever new way to assault the public
with yet more ads, you might want to ask, "Why?"